#whumptoberday13

[actualdickgrayson]

Day 13 entry for @ailesswhumptober because I fell asleep last night and forgot to post it.

Prompt: Crushed

[lady-wallace]

Even the Strongest: Whumptober Day 13 (Jujutsu Kaisen)

Gojo whump for today’s @whumptober prompt! And tired Nanami having to come to his rescue.

Prompt: Can’t Make an Omelet (fracture, ‘are you here to break me out?’)

Fandom: Jujutsu Kaisen

Character: Gojo

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Read on Ao3

Read on FF.net

Masterpost

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Gojo Satoru was a pain in his ass. Well, to be fair, Nanami wasn't alone in thinking that. Gojo Satoru was a pain in everyone's ass, which, coincidentally, was what made him a useful asset because that sentiment also extended to Curses and enemy sorcerers.

It was also what made it genuinely worrying when Gojo seemed to drop off the face of the earth.

It wasn't like Gojo was exactly good at telling anyone what he was doing, but when he had specifically been sent to look into an anti-Curse using group of sorcerers that had cropped up then one had to wonder. Nanami remembered what happened when he had fought Toji Fushiguro back when they were students—back before everything had gone to hell. What non-Curse users lacked in special ability, they made up for in arcane knowledge that was often extremely dangerous to both Curses and Curse Users alike. Not to mention their tendency to be able to collect the rarest weapons and talismans.

So, yes, as much as it irked Nanami to have to run off and fetch Gojo from his mission, he could understand the school's urgency when they had called him in.

He thought it had been a completely pointless venture by the time he got there and found the anti-Curse user's hub pretty destroyed. Looked like Gojo's work.

Nanami sighed and pulled out his phone, trying to call the other sorcerer again. Just like last time, there was the message that the number had been disconnected.

Nanami pressed his lips together and looked around some more.

There were actually traces of Cursed energy, probably remains from whatever fight must have ensued, so it seemed like Gojo had at least been there.

The question was, where was he now?

As Nanami searched the abandoned building, he began to pick up more traces of Curse energy. Weak, but there all the same. Nanami ventured further until he got to the part of the building that had taken the heaviest destruction.

The odd thing was that here there was no large traces of Cursed energy like there usually was after Gojo got done with a mission. In fact…

Nanami bent down to retrieve a grenade pin. There was a small warding tag taped onto the ring. Odd, he thought. Were these anti-Curse weapons?

The traces of energy were all but gone here, and Nanami was about to turn away when he came across something else in the rubble.

He bent to pick that up as well, dusting it off.

A black blindfold.

Nanami sighed, taking another look around. Where the hell could that idiot have gotten to? He found it hard to believe Gojo Satoru was actually dead. Even special grade Curses couldn't take him out.

He scuffed some gravel with his shoe and some of it trickled down a crack that was covered with a fallen support beam. Nanami frowned. Was there another level below this?

He pulled out his blade, picking a spot, and made short work of the rubble. He watched it crumble into the space below and then jumped down after it to look around.

He didn't get far before he heard a weak cough in the settling dust.

"Hey," the voice said. "You here to break me out?"

Nanami turned and saw a figure lying a little bit away, half buried under more rubble. Nanami quickly pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight, holding it over the figure.

Gojo cringed away from the light, turning his head away. He looked…rough. An odd look on the untouchable Gojo Satoru. Face bruised, legs worryingly trapped beneath a pile of rubble. His upper body was bound by several straps with anti-Curse talismans carved into them. The kind that deactivated curse energy. Obviously the reason Gojo was currently trapped under concrete instead of being able to repel it with his Infinity.

"What the hell happened?" Nanami asked.

Gojo winced as he looked up at him, white hair matted with blood from an injury to his forehead. It seemed to make his unnervingly bright eyes even brighter. "Maybe I got a little cocky. They didn't like that much, so they neutralized my powers and tried to bury me alive—can you believe it? What assholes."

Nanami sighed, finding a spot to set his phone so they could have light. "Are you injured?"

Gojo grinned. "Aww, Nanami, sweet of you to care." He huffed and shifted with a wince. "Leg hurts pretty bad, honestly. Can you…maybe get me out of here?"

The strain in his voice told Nanami exactly how bad it was. Gojo wasn't used to hurting. He didn't so much have a high tolerance for pain as he just wasn't used to what it felt like.

"Hold on, I need to figure out the best way to do this without crushing you completely."

Gojo grunted and Nanami inspected the fallen rubble. There was one particular piece of concrete that was crushing Gojo's left leg, but that seemed to be the only one actually making contact. The rest seemed to have been stopped by a beam that had wedged itself sideways.

"How's it look?" Gojo asked.

Nanami didn't reply, intently studying the area, looking for the best place to strike and not have everything crush Gojo further. Honestly it would have been a lot easier to have another pair of hands, but there had been no one else available. It had been a rough month.

"Just stay still," Nanami said.

Gojo sighed and thunked his head back on the ground. "Not going anywhere."

Nanami pressed his lips into a tight line as he pulled out his blade. He targeted the spot and swung.

Debris crumbled harmlessly around, freeing Gojo's leg.

"Hey, thank—"

Before Gojo could finish, Nanami hurried to grab his shoulders and yank him away as the rest of the rubble came crumbling down. Gojo gave a surprised shout of pain, which turned into a cough as more dust flew through the air. Nanami waved it away as it settled, then stowed his blade and crouched next to Gojo.

"Get these off me," the injured man gasped, straining his arms against the straps binding him. Nanami saw for the first time that they had secured a sort of harness around his torso, binding arms and wrists alike tightly together behind his back in a way that would make it impossible to move.

"These can keep you from using your power?" Nanami asked curiously.

Gojo huffed. "Don't get any ideas. They're not fun, I promise."

Nanami sighed and started to unbuckle the straps, loosening Gojo's limbs. When he pulled them free, Gojo heaved a deep breath of relief, before he slammed his eyes shut and pushed a hand against his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Are you all right?" Nanami asked him cautiously.

"Mm," Gojo muttered. "My Six Eyes is coming back. It's kind of a trip when you've had it off for a while."

Nanami turned to his leg, and didn't like what he saw. It was definitely twisted at an odd angle, and there was some blood as well. Undoubtedly a compound fracture then. Nanami sighed wearily and stood. "We need to splint this."

Gojo seemed to realize his situation and finally looked down at his own leg, paling further, looking like he might actually be sick this time.

Nanami found some wood among the debris and started to unwrap his blade so that he could use the material for the splint.

"H-hey, looks like you might have to carry me out of here," Gojo muttered.

Nanami knelt and suddenly grabbed hold of his foot, squeezing through his shoe.

Gojo cried out. "God, Nanami! What the hell?"

"Good. You still have feeling in your foot, that means no nerve damage."

Gojo took a shuddering breath and forced himself up onto his elbows. "Yeah, well, it didn't hurt nearly so much until you started messing with it."

"Well, it's just going to get worse," Nanami told him blandly as he set the split materials aside and took a careful hold on Gojo's leg before ripping his pants up to the knee to better see what he was doing.

"Geez, buy me dinner first, Nanami," Gojo quipped woozily as he looked down at his leg. "Hey…that's not right is it?"

"No, it's not," Nanami informed him before grabbing the straps he had taken from Gojo earlier, handing them to him. "You might want to bite down on this."

Gojo stared at him. "You're not actually…"

"There's no point in splinting it crooked. I would suggest not wasting any more time arguing."

Gojo silently took the straps and folded them over, putting them between his teeth, laying back flat.

Nanami didn't make him wait. He prodded the injury briefly as Gojo made muffled protests, then efficiently moved onto resetting the leg.

The almost inhuman shriek from Gojo pierced his ears and he found he couldn't touch the other sorcerer again. Gojo must have activated Infinity in self-defense.

Nanami did actually feel bad for the man as he lay there panting, dust from the room sticking to the sweat on his forehead. He was staring straight up, fists clenched, fingernails digging into the ground, the straps still clenched in his teeth.

"Gojo," Nanami said after a moment. "I can't splint this if you won't let me touch you."

Gojo's eyes met his, wide and swimming with pain. Nanami had never seen him like this before and it did something to him. There was something unnerving about seeing this extremely powerful, cocky, man laid so low.

"The worst is over now," Nanami added, trying to do what he could to calm Gojo.

It was a long moment before Gojo seemed to relax, or rather run out of the little energy he had left. He slumped back onto the floor again, eyes sliding shut and the Infinity fell away, allowing Nanami to touch him again.

He quickly applied the splint as Gojo let out soft gasps and moans of pain, then sat back.

"Alright, let's find the way out of here. There's a staircase that doesn't look like it's blocked. Think you can stand?"

Gojo stared up at him balefully. Nanami sighed and reached down, first helping Gojo sit up and then putting one of his arms over his shoulders and getting a firm grip around his waist.

"Just keep your leg straight, I'm going to lift you in three. One…two…"

Nanami heaved Gojo upright and the man let out another cry, staggering on his one good leg as he leaned heavily on Nanami. Nanami had to adjust for the added weight, but steadied Gojo enough for him to stay upright without putting any weight on his injured leg.

Gojo clung to him tightly, panting, sweat actually pouring down his face.

"God, it hurts. Why the hell does it hurt so bad?" Gojo gasped, fingers tight in Nanami's coat, knuckles white. "I can't…it's not healing."

"Don't overexert yourself," Nanami told him. "Shoko will be able to do better than you will."

"You kidding? Her bedside manner's worse than yours," Gojo murmured.

Nanami grunted, getting an even firmer grip on the other man. "Ready?"

Gojo nodded tightly.

Nanami started them on the slow crawl to the stairs. Every hobbling step pulled a sound of pain from Gojo as he leaned more and more heavily against Nanami. But eventually they got there, even though Nanami had to practically carry Gojo up the stairs—and honestly at that point he thought it might have been easier to just throw the other man over his shoulder.

But they got to the top and out of the building. Gojo whimpered in relief as the car came into view.

"Just a little further," Nanami felt the need to reassure as he was supporting at least 99% of Gojo's body weight right now. The man was a lot more solid than he looked.

"Hey," Gojo murmured quietly, sounding exhausted and pretty out of it by this point. "Thanks for coming for me…Nanami." He took a deep breath. "For a while…didn't think I…was gonna…ya know. Ran out of…options."

The honest admission briefly sent Nanami for a loop. He had to double check that the man he was practically carrying was Gojo Satoru. It was so out of the ordinary that he began to feel his chest tighten with an unknown emotion toward Gojo. One he didn't normally reserve for the cocky sorcerer.

Sentiment was too much. But Gojo was his comrade, at most a brother in arms. Did Nanami respect him? No. His ideals were too far from what Nanami's were, and while he could admit that his teaching methods were effective, they left a bitter taste in Nanami's mouth who didn't condone putting students in danger the way Gojo did. The only thing that quelled his vitriol on that matter was the fact that he knew well enough that for all the danger he might throw his students into, Gojo would throw himself at something ten times more dangerous. Alone. Nanami had come to realize it might be more of a disconnect that led Gojo to make the decisions he did, than any inner malice. It would be difficult for someone who was essentially untouchable to comprehend how dangerous certain situations could be—case in point. So no, Nanami didn't necessarily respect Gojo as a man, but he did respect his powers—grudgingly—and how he used them. It would be stupid not to.

But now this admission of honest human weakness…maybe it did cause Nanami to have to admit just a little respect for the man. At the very least, he couldn't bring himself to be annoyed with Gojo at the moment. Though that might also have something to do with the fact that the white-haired man was pretty much passing out on his feet and didn't have the energy to be annoying.

"Did you really think we would leave you there?" Nanami asked him gruffly as they finally got to the car. He opened the passenger door and bent to slide the seat back before helping Gojo sit. "Don't be an idiot."

Gojo gritted his teeth as Nanami lowered him down and laid back gratefully in the seat, closing his eyes as Nanami adjusted his leg, lifting it carefully into the footwell. "No, I knew you'd come," he said, then one eye opened and there was a smirk turning up one corner of his mouth. "Wait till Shoko hears that you were so eager to get to me you started ripping off my clothes—"

Nanami slammed the door on him, feeling that small speck of respect instantly replaced with annoyance again. He grabbed his keys from his pocket as he reached for the driver's side door.

He supposed it was too much to ask that some things could ever change.

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